Known ringback tone services allow a called party to preselect a ringback tone to be played to a calling party. Traditionally, the calling party would hear a standard ringback tone before the called party answers the call. The ringback tone service replaces that standard ringback tone with a ringback tone selected by the called party. For example, the ringback tone service allows the called party to customize the ringback tone that the calling party hears during the ringing phase of a call to the called party. The calling party hears the ringback tone preselected by the called party while waiting for the called party to answer.
To set up the ringback tone service, the called party sends ringback tone selection criteria to a ringback tone service component. The ringback tone selection criteria indicate which ringback tone to play in various circumstances. For example, the ringback tone selection criteria may instruct the ringback tone service component to play a first user-selected ringback tone for any call with a first set of characteristics, and to play a second user-selected ringback tone for any call with a second set of characteristics.
In known ringback tone services, the called party is the subscriber of the service. Therefore, the called party selects the ringback tone to be played to the calling party on calls to the called party. The calling party is not able to interact with the ringback tone service that is controlled by the called party. The sound that the calling party hears during the ringing phase of the call can only be changed by the called party. As one shortcoming, the called party may select a ringback tone for the calling party that is disliked by the calling party. As another shortcoming, the calling party must continue to hear the disliked ringback tone on subsequent calls to the called party until the called party changes the selection.
Thus, a need exists for an increase in calling party interaction with a ringback tone service.